As a publishing phenomenon, I find the extraordinary success of the Harry Potter series of books (and movies, including the spinoffs...and live theater versions, and next up, the HBO TV Series) pretty interesting. As an avid devourer of fiction, I was unable to resist reading the first book to see what all the fuss was about. I found it to be a fairly enjoyable read [see below for what I had to say at Roy's Book Reviews], but by no means life altering. If I had read it when I was 10 years old, perhaps I would have been fully caught up in the Elvis/Beatles/Menudo-like mania (I simply could not resist a Menudo reference). But as an adult, and an author, it is beyond my comprehension why these books have become quite as popular as they have. I found nothing between the covers of the first one to be especially unique or ground breaking. To me it simply seemed to be engaging young adult fantasy fiction, well enough written to find a wide audience for sure, but not to inspire a literary revolution. If a single kid picks up a book to read that he would not otherwise have done because the Harry Potter titles make reading "cool", then it is a revolution that I wholeheartedly endorse even if I can't quite understand it. Yet as a writer who for years worked 9-5 in publishing and tries to keep abreast of what's going on in the industry, I do find it baffling that while J.K. Rowling makes an obscene amount of money due to one of the greatest jobs of marketing I've ever witnessed, there is a substantial amount of quality literature being written that cannot find homes at mainstream publishers or an audience of significant size. This I find to be a shame, not that anyone in particular is necessarily to blame for it. We simply happen to live in a world that celebrates mass appeal mediocrity over thought provoking brilliance. The phenomenon of Harry Potter makes about as much sense to me as people refusing to get bored of American Idol or young girls being allowed to wear pajama pants to school. But since we also live in a time of rapidly decreasing literacy, with the culture of long form reading [anything longer than a tweet] declining at a rapid rate (excluding bibliophile nerds mostly attracted to particular genres/tropes/authors who have turned speed reading into a game scored on social media sites such as Instagram and TikTok), let me repeat that I am in favor of anything and everything that glamourizes books. Especially the ink on paper variety. And since these days J.K. Rowling mostly makes news for letting us know how much she loathes the concept of Trans people, I welcome attention being brought back to her amusement park enhancing book franchise where it belongs.
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The only reason it's such a big deal is because it convinced an almost illiterate generation excited about reading. Everyone picked it up because the written word had, for so long, been considered dead and parents were happy to find a way to convince children to pick up a book.
ReplyDeleteI am in awe of JK Rowling's success as an author. The woman is a billionaire. In every art form there are those who are exceedingly talent who never seem to quite make it, and those with limited talented that become obscenely famous and wealthy (think Paris or Britney).
ReplyDeleteI think that JK Rowling is a very good author, that has enjoyed some great breaks, had the right formula at the right time, and was privileged to have the marketing machine to augment her success.
I only hope that I am at the front of the line the next time this unbeatable combination is handed out. :-)